Descripción
Oblong folio (10 x 14 2/8 inches). 30 EXCEPTIONALLY FINE drawings of which 18 are watercolor (no. 24 is in grisaille) and 12 are pencil (no. 21 faintly signed "Empson"), each with tissue guards (various sizes ca 7 x 9 inches), all mounted into an album, mounting leaves numbered 1-32 in a contemporary hand (no. 16 skipped in numeration, no. 31 removed). Contemporary dark green straight-grained morocco, with floral blind-tooled border and gilt-tooled frame, spine gilt, top edge gilt, pink silk markers (extremities a bit rubbed). Provenance: with the invoice of Francis Edwards dated October 1953, made out to; Jacques Levy, his sale, Sotheby's, 20th April 2012, lot 96 This album of beautiful original watercolours is accompanied by Empson's published account of his journey to South America: "Narratives of South America; illustrating Manners, Customs, and Scenery" (London: A.J. Valpy & William Edwards for the Author, 1836), and the portfolio of illustrations "Fac-similes of Twelve Drawings of Tropical Scenery from Sketches made on the spot by Charles Empson", with 12 plates of which 10 are etched and 2 are lithographed, all hand-colored, and mounted on cards. Empson, a print and watercolour dealer in Bath, spent three years travelling the northern part of South America, for the most part in what is now Colombia, from 1824 to 1827. "The glorious descriptions of Humboldt had induced many persons who had no other motive beyond that of beholding Nature in all her majesty, to explore these regions so gorgeously clothed in primaeval vegetation, and so abundant in every production interesting to mankind. It was my happiness to associate with many travellers who had established themselves in the Republic before any of the European nations had acknowledged the independence of Columbia, and had shared in the vicissitudes of the revolutionary war; but they found ample compensation for all their privations in the inexhaustible variety of the new world. A field so rich, and so extensive, proved an irresistible temptation to the scientific man; the produce and commercial demands of so vast a continent were not less attractive to the merchant, while scenes of grandeur and beauty offered the most fascinating allurements to the imagination of the enthusiast." (Preface). Empson was accompanied by his friend Robert Stephenson, son of the famous railway engineer. They returned with precious objects of pre-Colombian art, including some gold artifacts which Charles later exhibited in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Unfortunately, some of their possessions were lost in a shipwreck at the entrance to New York harbor. On his return Empson published his account of their adventures as "Narratives South America; Illustrating Manners, Customs, and Scenery: containing also numerous facts in Natural History, collected during a Four Years' Residence in Tropical Regions", 1836, illustrated with facsimiles of his original watercolour drawings, many of which feature in this album. 1: Fine watercolour drawing (6 4/8 x 9 4/8 inches) of the turbulent Rio Magdalena at Angostura with snow capped mountain range in the distance: "The rainy season was commencing as we left El Claro; the river rapidly swelled, and our progress was very slow: after sixteen days of hard toil, we reached Angostura, a place so called, as the river there is confined in a strait between rocks: there is at all times considerable difficulty in getting a heavy boat through this strait, but at particular seasons it is extremely dangerous. On our arrival, the river had swollen until the pressure of water above the Angostura forced the current through the strait with such violence, that it formed a cascade, or salto, as the natives call it." (page 249). 2: Fine pencil sketch (7 x 8 3/8 inches) of the Cocina or Kitchen subsequently lithographed for the published account: "The tenement represented in this sketch is variously denominated, according to the purposes to which it is applied: when the building is attached. N° de ref. del artículo 72lib760
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